“I Don’t Make It Easy on Myself”: Divorce and the Power of Desire Lily Allen’s Spontaneous Return | Lily Allen

When Lily Allen released her fifth album on Friday morning, there were as many headlines explaining the record’s contents as there were actual reviews of the music.

The West End Girl storyline, which was surprisingly announced on Monday, appears to relate to the 40-year-old British pop star’s divorce from American actor David Harbour, who stars in Netflix’s sci-fi series Stranger Things.

In interviews, Allen has been careful to liken the album to a work of autofiction, telling British Vogue that it refers to things she experienced in her marriage “but that doesn’t mean it’s all gospel.”

Given the very detailed and striking allegations about her husband’s violation of the agreed upon terms of an open relationship, his emotional manipulation and his sex addiction, one would imagine that the lawyers would have strongly advised her to add this caveat. (Harbour has not responded to the album’s contents.)

And in an interview this week with Katie’s Grand Perfect magazine, Allen admitted that the record is likely to further inflame her tumultuous relationship with the media.

“I’m not making it easy for myself, am I?” She said. However, beyond the album’s obvious catnip – including lyrics about discovering “sex toys, butt plugs, and lubricant inside / Hundreds of Trojans” (condoms) in the song “Pussy Palace” – some newspapers bordered on the more personal in their coverage of West End Girl. “You almost feel sorry for David Harbour,” read the headline of the Times review. In a 2/5 review, the Financial Times accused Allen of “hollow performance”.

On the other hand, Allen’s return to music, seven years after the release of her last album, No Shime, has been met with widespread acclaim – with due regard to his musical virtues. In a four-star review, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote: “What ties the songs together beyond the story they tell is the stunning beauty of the melodies, which seem, starkly, more evocative of a romantic fairytale ending than the rage and unhappiness conveyed by the lyrics.”

In another four-star review, The Telegraph praised the technical aspects of Allen’s writing: “The strength of West End Girl lies in the way it clearly presents itself as one side of the story: a woman trapped in her own head. Narrative tension builds as listeners can’t pull back to get a wider perspective of the situation, allowing us to share Allen’s claustrophobia and paranoia.” The Daily Mail said the four-star album said it sits alongside Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black and Adele’s 21 in the annals of great pop albums.

The Independent gave it five stars, highlighting the relatability of Allen’s themes – not just a revelation of hyperpersonality, but an illustration of “how easy it is to get lost in someone else’s shame, in love, and confuse it with your own.”

Petrides also drew on how Allen’s fans may have grown up alongside her and related to the story she tells about modern relationships: “Underneath all the gory details, she seems to be implying that open arrangements are easily abused, usually by men, and that believing that you’re above outdated notions of fidelity — a ‘modern wife,'” Allen says at one point — “is no guarantee you won’t get your heart broken.”

Fan response on the Popheads subreddit and the Popjustice forums — two of the busiest and most passionate destinations for popular discussions online — has been almost uniformly positive. One viral tweet likened the album to Lorde’s much-loved second album, which revolves around the tempestuous rituals of first heartbreak: “Can’t believe Lily Allen is about to drop melodrama for divorced white British women over 40.”

It remains to be seen how this tribute informs what Allen will do next. No Shame received similar levels of praise but was her lowest-selling album – although her 2006 debut Well, Still was released in the pre-streaming era, making it difficult to compare on a level playing field. She has not announced any tour dates in support of the record, and has not played live since 2019. In September, she said she would temporarily step away from Miss Me?, the hugely successful BBC podcast she presented with childhood friend Mikita Oliver, “while I go and do some new stuff for a while” – presumably for the album.

In the break since Allen released and toured No Shame, she has found success as a stage actress. The opening song and title track of West End Girl appear to document Allen’s discovery that she had landed the lead role in 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Noël Coward Theater in 2021, forcing her to move from her adoptive family’s home in New York to London, and the fissures this apparently created in her marriage. She received excellent reviews and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance.

Allen next starred in a revival of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman and Hedda, a reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s play directed by Matthew Dunster.

At the moment, Allen no longer has any other roles on the cards. However, one of the things she can play is the role of godmother to a new wave of young pop stars molded in her image. In 2022, American star Olivia Rodrigo invited Allen to come on stage with her at Glastonbury to cover the latter’s 2008 hit, Fuck You, which she dedicated to the US Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. Billie Eilish is a fan. Her no-holds-barred conversational delivery can be heard in the output of Charli xcx and Lola Young.

In the words of UK producer PinkPantheress: “Lily Allen made yourself feel amazing.” In West End Girl, she certainly doesn’t look like everyone else.